Temporary Violent IAF-1DF Penetration by Air & Ground into Gaza Strip
Until terrorist military weaponry is searched out & eliminated by Force
AND Gaza Gates Between Gaza And Egypt ARE Under Israeli Control!
Israel DOES NOT Intend TO PERMANENTLY Reoccupy The Gaza Strip,
And will withdraw once she is satisfied her goals are Accomplished.
How Long Accomplishment of These Goals Will Occur Is Uncertain!
I don’t believe the operation will start Widespread Mid-East War!
November 17, 2012
http:www.tribulationperiod.com/
Excerpt 1 from World News via Associated Press and Stars & Stripes
Israel expands air assault on rockets in Gaza, calls up reservists
By KARIN LAUB AND JOSEF FEDERMAN
The Associated Press
November 17, 2012
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel expanded its fierce air assault on rocket operations in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, striking Hamas government and security compounds, smuggling tunnels and electricity sources after an unprecedented rocket attack aimed at the holy city of Jerusalem raised the stakes in its violent confrontation with Palestinian militants.
Israeli aircraft also kept pounding their initial targets, the militants’ weapons-storage facilities and underground rocket-launching sites. The Israeli military called up thousands of reservists and massed troops, tanks and armored vehicles along the border with Gaza, signaling a ground invasion of the densely populated seaside strip could be imminent.
Israel launched its military campaign Wednesday after days of heavy rocket fire from Gaza and has carried out some 700 airstrikes since, the military said. Militants, undaunted by the heavy damage the air attacks have inflicted, have unleashed some 500 rockets against the Jewish state, including new, longer-range weapons turned for the first time this week against Jerusalem and Israel’s Tel Aviv heartland.
Israel has slowly expanded its operation beyond military targets and before dawn on Saturday, the Gaza Interior Ministry reported, missiles smashed into two small Hamas security facilities as well as the massive Hamas police headquarters in Gaza City, setting off a huge blaze that engulfed nearby houses and civilian cars parked outside. No one was inside the buildings at the time.
The Interior Ministry said a government compound was also hit as devout Muslims streamed to the area for early morning prayers. So, too, was a Cabinet building where the Hamas prime minister received the prime minister of Egypt on Friday.
In southern Gaza, Israeli aircraft went after the hundreds of underground tunnels militants used to smuggle in weapons and other contraband from Egypt, people in the area reported. A huge explosion in the area sent buildings shuddering in the Egyptian city of El-Arish, 30 miles (45 kilometers) away, an Associated Press correspondent there reported. The tunnels have also been a lifeline for residents of the area during the recent fighting, providing a conduit for food, fuel and other goods after supplies stopped coming in from Israel days before the military operation began.
Missiles also knocked out five electricity transformers, plunging more than 400,000 people into darkness, according to the Gaza electricity distribution company.
A separate airstrike leveled a mosque in central Gaza, damaging nearby houses, Gaza security officials and residents said. The military had no comment on that attack and it wasn’t clear whether weapons or fighters were being harbored in the area.
One person was killed and three dozen people were wounded in the various attacks, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said. In all, 30 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed since the Israeli operation began.
The Israeli military said it did not immediately have an accounting of its various overnight targets.
“The Palestinian government emphasizes its steadfastness and support for the Palestinian resistance,” government spokesman Ihab Hussein said in a text message to reporters after the wave of Israeli attacks. “It stands alongside its people, who are subject to this aggression.”
The widened scope of targets brings the two sides closer to the kind of all-out war they waged four years ago. Hamas, a group committed to Israel’s destruction, was badly bruised during that confrontation, but has since restocked its arsenal with more and better weapons, and has been under pressure from smaller, more militant groups to prove its commitment to armed struggle against Israel.
The attack aimed at Jerusalem on Friday and strikes on the Tel Aviv area twice this week dramatically showcased the militants’ new capabilities, including a locally made rocket that appears to have taken Israeli defense officials by surprise. Both areas had remained outside the gunmen’s reach in past rounds of fighting, and their use dramatically escalated the hostilities.
Just a few years ago, Palestinian rockets were limited to crude devices manufactured in Gaza. But in recent years, Israeli officials say, Hamas and other armed groups have smuggled in sophisticated, longer-range rockets from Iran and Libya, which has been flush with weapons since Moammar Gadhafi was ousted last year.
The eerie wail of air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem after the start of the Jewish Sabbath in the holy city, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as a capital and located about 75 kilometers (47 miles) from Gaza. Jerusalem residents were shocked to find themselves suddenly threatened by rocket fire, which, for more than a decade, had been limited to steadily broadening sections of southern Israel.
The attack on the contested city was especially audacious, both for its symbolism and its distance from Gaza. Located roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Gaza border, Jerusalem had been considered beyond the range of Gaza rockets – and an unlikely target because it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest shrine.
Most of the militants’ rockets do not have guided systems, limiting their accuracy, though Israeli officials believe the militants may have a small number of guided missiles that have not yet been used.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the rocket landed in an open area southeast of the city – near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem and just a few miles from Al-Aqsa.
Earlier on Friday, Gaza gunmen fired toward Tel Aviv for the second straight day, causing no injuries.
“We are sending a short and simple message: There is no security for any Zionist on any single inch of Palestine and we plan more surprises,” said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing.
Israeli leaders have threatened to widen the operation if the rocket fire doesn’t halt. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said options included the possible assassination of Hamas’ prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, and other top leaders.
“Every time that Hamas fires there will be a more and more severe response,” he told Channel 2 TV on Friday. “I really recommend all the Hamas leadership in Gaza not to try us again. … Nobody is immune there, not Haniyeh and not anybody else.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu huddled with his emergency Cabinet on Friday night. Israeli media reported the meeting approved a request from Defense Minister Ehud Barak to draft 75,000 reservists. Earlier this week, the government approved a separate call-up of as many as 30,000 soldiers. Combined, it would be the biggest call-up of reserves in a decade.
Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, a military spokeswoman, said 16,000 reservists were called to duty on Friday and others could soon follow.
She said no decision had been made on a ground offensive but all options are on the table. Dozens of armored vehicles have been moved to Israel’s border with Gaza since fighting intensified Wednesday.
The violence has widened the instability gripping the region, straining already frayed Israel-Egypt relations. The Islamist government in Cairo, linked like Hamas to the region-wide Muslim Brotherhood, recalled its ambassador in protest and dispatched Prime Minister Hesham Kandil to the territory on Friday to show solidarity.
Begin Excerpt 2 from YNet News
Home Front Command: Prepare for 7 weeks of fighting some 2,000 Command reservists recruited so far
Yoav Zitun
Authority heads within 75-kilometer range from Gaza Strip instructed to prepare;
November 16, 2012
Home Front Command asks local authorities to prepare for seven-week fighting period: In discussions held between Home Front Command Chief Major-General Eyal Eisenberg, regional commanders and heads of local authorities in the center and in the south, authorities have been instructed to prepare for a seven-week period of combat as part of Operation Pillar of Defense and to prepare emergency supplies, accordingly.
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Some supplies were prepared in advance. The Home Front Command estimates that terror organizations in the Gaza Strip are still capable of launching long-range rockets, even further than a 75-kilometer range.
The Home Front Command sharpened instructions for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area and southern residents and, accordingly, communities located in a range of between 40-75 kilometers from the Gaza Strip must enter nearby, protected spaces the moment blasts or sirens are heard.
If there is no protected space in the vicinity, residents should enter the nearest structure or stairwell. In light of the long-range rockets fired over the past few days, these instructions apply to all communities within a 75-kilometer range and not only in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.
Until now, 2,000 ground reservists have been enlisted to the Home Front Command. Beyond emergency and rescue team activities at locations where missiles have landed, the Command’s soldiers have been filling various duties such as providing reinforcements at hospitals, opening baby-sitting services and renovating shelters.
Shelters – on demand
Due to the escalation, the Home Front Command has been enlarging protected areas and dispersing portable shelters in southern communities. Instruction has yet to be given to the Tel Aviv metropolitan area authorities to open public shelters, but authorities have been opening shelters upon resident demands in various neighborhoods, as residents turn to the municipal 106 call center.
The Home Front Command has not yet been caught by surprise by the rocket firing range, firing rate and the like. Until now, over 550 missile landings have been counted, but only 26 of them in built-up areas.
The commander of the Home Front Command has released orders to the Ashdod Port and to factories with hazardous materials in the south. According to these orders, hazardous materials must be protected and removed.
Thousands of reservists have received emergency enlistment orders and, over the past few hours, have been trickling into the gathering and enlisting point in the south. Hundreds of military trucks with supplies, ammunition, water and gasoline, alongside tank-carriers, armored-personnel carriers and jeeps are filling the Gaza vicinity roads in a sight that has not been seen in the area since Operation Cast Lead.
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